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Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

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Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#11

Some of the user-interface problems I recognised in my few-minute-test: - Many notes I have are longer: I.e. tend to be made of headlines etc. So i need something like markdown for structuring. Using the mouse seems to cumbersome and to hard to maintain a visual consistency. - The delete button (particularly on the default notes) was too hidden in the menu. I had to search for it. - Adding a link didn't automatically…

I must agree, there are these subtle usability issues. I'll be definitely addressing these in next updates. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#12
I was looking at this because I want to make something similar. I've been looking for the software I want for the last ten years, and nothing comes close to the image in my head as to what software can do. So, I'll explain what I want.

I want something similar to this, which will replace email. It doesn't necessarily have to replace email, but it will accept emails and you can send emails out of it. The idea being that email will manage the projects. I'll explain. You create an email to people. You tag it as 'project' and it will create a new project, a distribution list, and automatically give the project a name (based on the subject). Any files emailed between you and others in that project via email will automatically be added to your project's workspace. Appointments set will be assigned to the project, and each appointment occurrence will have notes that you can keep for that occurrence. Tasks can be created for projects as well, and people can be assigned those tasks, and get email reminders.

With those features, if I don't recall what happened in the last meeting, or some client is asking about a file that I supposedly received, I don't have to go looking around trying to find which email on which day it was, as I'll have all project's emails together.

Once a project is finished, then emails between people in that project won't automatically be categorized, but there will be 'suggested' categories.

-- that said, this is nice, however, I can't figure out the ordering here, it appears there is none. Here's a simple test. Add 21 new notes. Just 1 enter enter 2 enter enter... it appears that the new notes are added to the left and that pushes everything else to the right, except when it comes to the extreme right and then it pushes that one all the way to the left and down one. That's an easy way to do it, but it's not easy to read. People are used to reading newspapers, Newspapers have a columnar format, and you read your columns. Classified ads are vertical columns as well, and if you are looking for something you look vertically within the categories. This on the other hand is horizontal categories, which is very confusing, especially since the category something is in is related to what's left of it, and how large that left thing is... in the example I give, you notice now 1,2,3 are from right to left on the bottom. Then 4 is slightly higher than those, on the very left. and then go right again, 5,6,7 all good, and 8 is once again higher... continue on until you get to sixteen, and now it all looks nice and tidy. Now edit 14 to say "14 this is a much longer note just as a test to see what happens with the columns". Now the whole thing looks like a mess.

tldr; use vertical columns to make the output predictable. People are used to spacial relation, so changing that because the content of one cell changes, makes the spatial relationship memory useless.

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#13

Do you plan an open source version for self-hosting?

I too liked the look of this but would want to self-host.

I use Google Keep on my phone and this looks like a great alternative except that it doesn't have the incredibly useful feature of being a widget on my phone's home screen.

Hosting this service myself and an installing an app on my phone with a widget would sell me on it for sure. A hundred million bonus points if I can create a checklist and mark items off using my pebble.

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#14

I was looking at this because I want to make something similar. I've been looking for the software I want for the last ten years, and nothing comes close to the image in my head as to what software can do. So, I'll explain what I want. I want something similar to this, which will replace email. It doesn't necessarily have to replace email, but it will accept emails and you can send emails out of it. The idea being th…

Ah, and even though I can drag notes around to sort of order them, in my 21 notes example, doing that re-arranges notes that I already ordered, so that's a useless feature.

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#15

Do you plan an open source version for self-hosting?

When I was brainstorming this idea about self hosting or federation kinda came to mind but i was not sure about interest in that. Actually at the moment As its Node and MongoDB there would be not problem to self host, but I need to think about that :)

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#16
It looks interesting. There are two features that would make me really excited (could be that I just didn't find them in the few minutes I looked for them). The first is the ability to link notes directly to each other and then view the notes in a graph view, mind-map style. I see the graph view for tags, but nothing for viewing notes in a graph. The second is a mobile app, cause I do most of my note-taking on my phone. The web interface is useable on my phone, but not really ideal, as many of the controls are too small for my finger to reliably hit. I don't know how much I line up with the target audience here, so there could be good reasons that those aren't planned or prioritized.

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#18

It looks interesting. There are two features that would make me really excited (could be that I just didn't find them in the few minutes I looked for them). The first is the ability to link notes directly to each other and then view the notes in a graph view, mind-map style. I see the graph view for tags, but nothing for viewing notes in a graph. The second is a mobile app, cause I do most of my note-taking on my pho…

Mobile is with high priority. Linking notes to each other - basically if you promote note to tag (from options in edit mode), then it can be linked, to other note. but simply linking notes, not at the moment. As for mind-map feature - similar thing you described is also in a future vision - basically you should be able to vie your notes in graph with relation to other tags (and thus maybe even create meta links/tags to link those together).. but that's for the future of Beyondpad!

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#19

I was looking at this because I want to make something similar. I've been looking for the software I want for the last ten years, and nothing comes close to the image in my head as to what software can do. So, I'll explain what I want. I want something similar to this, which will replace email. It doesn't necessarily have to replace email, but it will accept emails and you can send emails out of it. The idea being th…

Nice read! About ordering - notes are shown in order they were added or reorganized. As for masonry layout - you are absolutely correct in cases it can be hard to read, that's why Beyondpad has two options in settings, max number of columns and should those columns be arranged in rows or tiles, I guess Row layout is what you would preferred (this layout option can be changed also from context bar (three dots near search bar)) About email solution - that would be indeed interesting to see implemented in some email client. Just to give some reference context in Beyondpad - one point in vision is to allow attaching emails to tags, thus when adding tag to a note or stuff that note would be shared with those contacts.

Re: Show HN: Beyondpad – New kind of note taking and data management solution

#20

It looks very interesting. Congrats! Is it possible to have more than one widget associated to an item. Let's say, I create an item and add a countdown timer and a to-do list. Would it work?

Yes you can add multiple same type items to a note, no problem!
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